FAI to clarify O'Brien decision

FAI international awards: More than a year after playing his last game for the Republic of Ireland, Andy O'Brien retired from international football over the weekend although the FAI is still waiting on confirmation of the 28-year-old's decision who apparently decided to get the news to them by post.

Neither the letter nor the player had arrived in Dublin as of yesterday and Don Givens said he hoped to talk to the central defender in order to clarify the situation before deciding on whether to call in a replacement for Wednesday's game against Brazil.

Given the lack of options available and the recent departures of Steve Finnan and Stephen Carr, the loss of the Bolton Wanderers player would be a blow to the next full-time manager.

O'Brien was sidelined for the second year of Steve Staunton's reign after being dropped in the wake of the 5-2 defeat in Cyprus where he played despite not being fully fit. He has, however, benefited from a move from Portsmouth to Bolton where he is getting regular first-team football again.

"Obviously, I've got to clear up the situation," said Givens with his caretaker senior team manager hat on. "I have to find out if that's a definite situation because it's come out of the blue completely, I only heard about it when I got in here today.

"I'd like to talk to Andy before I say too much. I've always had a great relationship with him from the under-21s so I would expect that I will have a chat with him sometime after which I'll be able to say for definite. He was having a nose operation when we were in Cardiff so I haven't actually spoken to Andy in a while. Hopefully by tomorrow, I'll be able to say if he's gone or if he's back in."

While Shay Given and Damien Duff appeared to come through Newcastle's draw with Middlesbrough without any problems there are doubts about the fitness of Robbie Keane and Steven Reid for the visit of the South Americans.

"Robbie has got a bit of ankle problem but the medical opinion at Spurs is that they think it will be okay," said Givens. "Steven Reid has a bit of a knee problem. He spoke to me about it and he's staying in Blackburn for treatment but we'll speak to him in the morning. It's probably a slightly more serious problem to Robbie at the moment.

"Other than that, we're hoping the other two boys (Given and Duff) come through while Kevin Kilbane should be coming in later tonight as well, he's got something to do with his family."

At the Eircom/FAI International Awards last night, meanwhile, Manchester City defender Richard Dunne was named as the country's senior player of the year. The award comes after a year in which the 28-year-old played seven times to bring his tally of caps to 39 and produced a series of impressive displays for the Republic, most notably in the home games against Slovakia, Wales and Germany.

His club-mate, Stephen Ireland, won the young player award which was presented to him last Thursday by team-mate Micah Richards while Stephen O'Halloran won the under-21 award and Dave Mooney was named as the League of Ireland's player of the year.

Player awards: the winners